Search Results for: culture

New BT HQ will be one of the “largest workplace transformations ever”

New BT HQ will be one of the “largest workplace transformations ever”

by • News, Property, Workplace design

BT has agreed a deal to move into a headquarters in the Aldgate area of London after the £210 million sale of its current base. BT will move to the new 320,000 square foot, 18-storey building near Aldgate East station currently called One Braham. The move comes as part of the group’s sweeping shake-up announced last month that will see 270 offices closed. Its consolidation plan – the biggest of its type in the UK – will see 300 offices reduced to 30 by 2023, although BT stressed that no jobs will be lost as a result of the move. (more…)

Problems with noise at work? A lot of it is in our heads

Problems with noise at work? A lot of it is in our heads 0

by • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

When it comes to working in an office, hell really can be other people. Many staff can have enormous difficulties coming to terms with the sounds that form the backdrop to their working day, especially if they work in open plan areas. The problem of noise at work is particularly acute right now because most UK employees now work in open plan offices and at workstations that are on average about 20 percent smaller than they were ten years or so ago. Yet, on the face of it, the business case for working in open plan offices is pretty clear cut.

(more…)

The Age of Blorp, a dead tulip, no muggles allowed and some other stuff

by • Architecture, Features, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

First the good news. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has rejected the proposals for Foster+Partners’ godawful 300 metre tall ‘Tulip’ viewing tower in London. The reasons given for the refusal from the Mayor’s office include the fact that the thing didn’t represent the sort of “world class architecture that would be required to justify its prominence”. A nicely dressed up way of saying it’s a terrible idea, a terrible piece of architecture and has absolutely no place in London. (more…)

Smelly food is most irritating behaviour in the office

Smelly food is most irritating behaviour in the office

by • News, Workplace

Smelly food is most irritating behaviour at workResearch gathered from 2000 office workers across the UK claims that eating smelly food is the most irritating behaviour in the office. The study, conducted by 4Com aimed to discover which habits most get under people’s skin in the work environment. When it comes to the habits workers admit to having themselves, 33 percent say they have no irritating habits at all. 15 percent are aware they speak loudly, and 13 percent claim they have a tendency to sing while they work. (more…)

CoreNet Global Summit to focus on workplace experiences

CoreNet Global Summit to focus on workplace experiences

by • Company news, Events, Property

Corporate real estate and workplace association CoreNet Global has announced that its Global Summit taking place in Amsterdam in September will examine the role that corporate real estate can play in leading, creating and fostering experiences that enable business success. The Summit, Amsterdam, which takes place this September, expects to bring together more than 650 corporate real estate executives, 100 speakers across 50 sessions. (more…)

The importance of self care for mental health

The importance of self care for mental health

by • Comment, Wellbeing

Nobody can fail to notice that mental health is high on the agenda for companies, employers have increasing expectations of their employers as well as increasing momentum from organisations such as the Health & Safety Executive to treat mental health risks in the same way as physical health risks. There are many excellent solutions available for employers such as mental health first aid training, employee assistance programs (EAPs), mental health nurses and increasing range of mobile technology tools. However rather than ‘locking the stable door after the horse has bolted’, it makes sense to look at how employers can support their employees to stay mentally well in the first place. (more…)

A life after carbon for the built environment

A life after carbon for the built environment

by • Cities, Environment, Features, Technology

A new urban model is emerging worldwide – transforming the way cities design and use physical space, generate economic wealth, consume and dispose of resources, exploit and sustain the natural ecosystems they need, and prepare for the future. This emerging new urban paradigm has profound implications for players who care about and depend on the design of a city’s built infrastructure – including architects, engineers, builders, real estate developers, and office building tenants. (more…)

Firms can overplay the war for talent, researchers find

Firms can overplay the war for talent, researchers find

by • News, Workplace

the war for talentFirms often put great effort in retaining good employees because they fear the loss of talent and knowledge spillover to rival companies. However, new research published in the Academy of Management journal by Stefan Wagner, Professor of Strategy at ESMT Berlin, and Martin Goossen from Tilburg University suggests that losing key employees to a competitor can actually be a benefit to companies and so the war for talent may be futile or even counterproductive. To assess the impact of mobile employees the researchers focused on R&D alliances in the pharmaceutical industry, where partnerships are a common mode of innovation as they diffuse the burden of costly drug development. They collected data on alliance formation amongst the 55 largest pharmaceutical firms over a 16-year period, identifying all scientists that moved between these firms. Of the 130,000 scientists the researchers tracked, more than 8,200 moved from one firm to another. (more…)

Diversifying hiring practices to bridge the skills gap

Diversifying hiring practices to bridge the skills gap

by • Comment, Workplace

diversity in hiring can help firms address the skills gapTalent scarcity and the skills gap have become very real concerns in the UK. We are currently in a period of high employment, and at the same time, uncertainty surrounding Brexit has caused a reduction in immigrant labour, reducing the talent pool further. For accountancy, the skills gap issue is even more acute because it is already an industry with a very limited talent pool. When asked to describe an accountant, it is likely that many of us would describe a very similar person. For a variety of reasons, accountancy as a profession attracts a very specific group – often male, university educated, usually from a Russell Group university. Hiring from such a small pool means that the squeeze on talent is even tighter in this sector. (more…)

The scale of the problem for workplace design

The scale of the problem for workplace design 0

by • Architecture, Comment, Workplace design

There is a typically telling and intelligent Pixar moment in the film A Bug’s Life in which an already well-lubricated mosquito goes up to a bar and orders a ‘Bloody Mary, O Positive’. The barman plonks a droplet of blood down on the bar. The mosquito sinks his proboscis into it, sucks it down in one go and promptly falls over. The mosquito doesn’t need a glass because that is for animals who have a problem with gravity. For insects, the major force in their lives isn’t gravity, but surface tension. (more…)

The growing problem of work separation anxiety

The growing problem of work separation anxiety

by • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

While it’s stated full-time working hours in the UK should be around 38-40 hours per week, today’s hyperconnected world means it’s easier than ever to be ‘on the clock’ outside this timeframe. Constant access to emails and the corresponding ‘telepressure’ to respond quickly to customers and colleagues means the line between ‘work time’ and ‘me time’ is blurred. This has led to the coining of a new term for the rising epidemic of stress linked to this need to be connected to work. It’s called work separation anxiety.

(more…)

Lack of workplace trust associated with heart disease

Lack of workplace trust associated with heart disease

by • Wellbeing, Workplace

An abstract painting of a heart to show the link between lack of workplace trust and heart diseaseA study published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, based on data drawn from a Gallup index of more than 412,000 full-time workers, suggests that lack of workplace trust could be a significant contributory factor to heart disease. (more…)

«< 89 90 91 92 93 >»